Maracanau, Brazil - Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

Totally had forgotten so thanks for the remainders! Hahaha wooh America!!! Happy birthday, America. Love ya foreva.

This week was super great! 

I was reunited with Sister Kirkendall!!!!! My companion from the MTC!!! She's a big deal now as Sister Trainer Leader so we went on splits and I got to be with her!!! It was so fun to catch up, talk about our MTC days, talk about our Provo days and working in the Payson Temple and how grateful we are for that special transfer in the United States we had, and then we talked about our missions here because we've literally been super far apart until now! We've both gone through lots of different experiences on the mission but we've both grown and changed a lot. So that was fun :)

We had our last conference with President Fusco like I said last week and tomorrow we have our first conference with President Leite! We're super excited!

The pics are me with Sister Takahashi at the conference

The girl who looks like she was crying is a member from Messejana who came to visit me at the conference (After it ended of course) the poor thing misses me :)

And the pic with me and 3 other girls are us Texans!!!!!!! The Texas girls all showing our Texas/UT pride!! Yup, there's 4 of us. We're taking over.

The others are my new district here in Maracanau and Cesario´s birthday!

Sorry I'm out of time but I'm doing great, I'm happy and healthy!

I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - Backstreet's back ALRIGHT!

Yes, our neighbor tortures me every Sunday by playing ALL THE CLASSICS of the Backstreet Boys. Lol

Well, I'm back! I didn't go anywhere though. I didn't get to email yesterday because from morning until night we were having our last mission conference with President Fusco. Tomorrow at midnight, President Leite will be our new president. It was such a great conference! He taught us and left us with lots of counsel, lots of advice, lots of testimony. He taught us about how obedience strengthens our faith. He gave us all a final interview – an exit interview that he gives to each missionary. It was also super great because I really wanted an exit interview with him and I got it there! He talked a little about President Leite too, who was his zone leader on the mission!! They're long time friends which is super cool, but they're very much opposites. President Leite told President Fusco to tell us that the mission will be a MUSICAL mission!! President Leite and his entire family all sing and play an instrument and love music so my new mission president and his family are basically the Von Trapp´s lololol no but I'm super excited! I'm really going to miss President Fusco though. He taught me a lot about my Savior. How on the mission we have the chance to get to know our Savior a little bit better, and when he bears testimony of Jesus Christ, you know that he KNOWS Him. He taught me a lot about repentance and how important it is, how it should be a daily thing that we do, that it's the chance we have to become more like Christ. I'm so grateful for him and all the things he taught me. I´m grateful to have had him as my 3rd mission president hahaha no but really, SO grateful for the chance I had to get to know him. He helped me a lot when I arrived in Brazil and was struggling. I will always hold our interviews near and dear to me. It´s sad to see yet another mission president go, but I will welcome the new one with an open heart!

This week the church had a São Joao party! It was sooo fun and reminded me a little of Hoedowns in Texas hahaha because they dress like cowboys a little bit! Our youth performed a São Joao traditional dance which was awesome and the bishop bought our food for us and a member from Messejana showed up!!! She had lived in Maracanau in the past so she knows almost everyone there but it was great because I got to hug and talk to her and ask about how my old ward´s doing and my recent converts. Leko and Padua both received the Melchizedek Priesthood, Leko baptized a girl, and Rodrigo passed the sacrament and is talking about when he'll serve a mission!! Wow I'm typing this with tears in my eyes! I never imagined the joy I would feel hearing about my recent converts going strong in the church! I am so blessed to have served here and to have had the opportunity to share this gospel with these people!!

This week was Cezario´s birthday (my latest recent convert) and we made him cake and on his birthday it's tradition for him to give a present to someone. Soooo lol he gave me a present and I made a video that I´ll send to you guys lolol it's hilarious!

This past week 2 missionaries returned! One is in the other ward and one is in ours. The one in ours, Hotoniel, brought his cousin to church on Sunday so he´s already getting at being a member missionary!! We're excited – he´s going to help us out a ton!

We also had lunch with Tcharlly this week which is always a delight. This time it was Sister Costa´s choice and she wanted to try sushi lolol so we went to a sushi place and I tried one anddddd didn't like it too much lol........ BUT NOW NO ONE CAN SAY I NEVER TRIED SUSHI! Because now I have J

Hilary pointed out that I talk a lot about repentance and the sacrament and I just realized that it seems like I'm a sinner lol but truthfully, we all are! No but I just talk about it a lot because President Fusco always talked about repentance and when Elder Andersen and Elder Christensen came, they both talked about the importance of repentance. It´s truly a gift we have! If we want to enter into the kingdom of God, we have to remember to repent every day because every day we make mistakes! Don't freak out though haha I've just seen and come to know of the blessings from repentance and partaking of the sacrament worthily. I´ve seen lots of investigators and less actives waiting a long time to take of the sacrament worthily :) They´re examples to me of true disciples of Christ, who want to be honest to Him.

WELL, that's all folks! Love you all and thank you for your emails and love and support and prayers and everything else y'all do for me!! I can't thank y'all enough :)

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - Maracanau is stuck with me!!

Oi family!!

Soo transfers finally happened andddd we´re staying! I´m staying in my beloved Maracanau with Sister Costa! My Texas sister, Sister Jeppeson, who was in the other ward that meets in our church building was transferred though :( I was sad about that. We had to go to their house to stay with her companion so we got to see her off and I got a picture with her at least. 

Last p-day we went to a member´s home, Barbara, with the intent to watch The Other Side of Heaven but she had forgotten to download the movie. So she made chocolate flavored popcorn and we chatted about our lives and such. Reminded me of all the many sleepovers I've had with my besties :) it was nice to relax and girl chat hahaha. Her house is also my favorite! It´s like the biggest house I've ever been in and it reminds me a lot of an American home and the inside reminds me a bit of Hochheim, so I obviously fell in love with it. It´s a two-story house, which is a rarity in itself, and there´s a balcony type spot where she put up a hammock and it has an awesome view. It´s where we ate popcorn and chatted :) Then she showed us her karaoke!! She was so cute and politely asked me, "Sister can you sing in English?" She had music from the U.S. and she was like "it just doesn't work out when we Brasilians try to sing in English!" So I sang When I was Your Man and she and my companion clapped when I finished hahaha my companion has fallen in love with my voice and now had been telling everyone that I sing well haha so we have this one investigator who just wants to hear me sing every time we stop by. I think he´s become yet another scorpion of mine…. poop. I also tried on a pair of Barbara´s heels and she took a pic hahaha it was so weird to walk in heels! We´re going to her house again today to hopefully watch the movie this time hahaha 

We also met the most adorable puppy this week in the house of a less active. Oh my GOSH he´s so cute and his belly is SO BIG!!!! I took lots of pics which I will include.

So the festival, São Joao, that´s been going on next to our neighborhood finally ended. There were shows every night and I´m so glad it´s over because it literally lasted until 5 am every morning and it was preventing our investigators to go to church because when we passed by in the morning to see if they would go they had just arrived at home! We've been teaching this one boy, Gabriel, who´s 13. He´s SUPER great and wants to go to church to visit and all but this festival has been temptation for him and for everyone. Unfortunately, it´s prevented him to go to church this week and last. But now that it´s over (hallelujah) he´ll be able to go to church!!

Ummm I've been eating lots of ice cream lately. Never compares to Blue Bell but…. yeah. I´m getting fat again lolol which is bad.

Also I´m finally reunited (sort of) with Sister Kirkendall!!!! My companion from the MTC!!!! She´s a Sister Trainer Leader and yeah she´s that in the other Maracanau zone!!! She called me the other night and was like, "Sister Parks?" and I responded, "Sister Kirkendall??" And we both screamed!! Seriously, since I arrived we've always been super far apart and now we´re finally close!!!! I've missed her so much :)

Well, don´t have that much else to say. I´m just super grateful for all my blessings. I´m grateful for the sacrament and the promises that are fulfilled when we worthily partake of the sacrament. 

I love you all and am missing y'all soo much!!

Until next week :)

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - A week full of fun!

Hey guys! Wow so many things happened this week so let´s get to it!

- Elder Christensen came and we had a conference with him! It was super cool because it was with the other mission too – Brasil Fortaleza Mission! I know 2 sisters in that mission from the MTC and got to chat with them both for a little so that was fun. But the best part was definitely Elder Christensen. He and Sister Christensen don´t know Portuguese so they had a translator. Let me tell you, I didn't know how hard that would be to hear English and Portuguese, one after the other. Because I understood them both and so my notes were like half in English and half in Portuguese hahaha it was an interesting experience! He talked a lot about how our investigators need to have a spiritual experience before baptism and that they need to know that messing up after baptism is normal, so we need to teach them again about repentance. Lots of new members think that after baptism they have to be perfect but that´s impossible because we all make mistakes every day! We all need to repent every day, and we´re so lucky to have the gift of repentance!

- Cezario who was baptized last week was confirmed a member of the church yesterday! This past week he was filled with questions for us on how to pay tithing, how to fast, and it was just so cute because he already wants to be faithful to God! We´re also now trying to hook him up with a sister in our ward who is about his age and is single hahahaha Irma Fatima. She´s literally the coolest most loving and dedicated person ever . I love her to death!

- There´s this “holiday” that only exists here in the North and it started this past week. I honestly don´t know how to explain it, but since Wednesday there have been concerts every night – the first day there was a super famous singer who came. So at night we hear the music and everything haha but it´s still manageable to sleep through thankfully. 

- We had lunch at home one day so I bought ingredients and made an Italian pasta!!!! Mom, you would be so proud! I bought penne noodles, then I followed your easy cheese sauce recipe and made a white sauce that perfectly thickened! Then we bought a chicken, already cooked, and I cut it up into little pieces and mixed it all together and TA DA!!!! Chicken pasta with white sauce :) it was delicious. My companion approved, too. I was pretty proud of myself. And it was so good to eat Italian-tasting food!

- This week we had a Talent Show!!!!!!!!!! It was super great and I brought the glow sticks that Mom and Taylor sent me and everyone loved them - especially the kids!! The youth in our ward all dance so they made a dance (the night before) and performed it and it was seriously so legit. this lan house unfortunately isn't picking up my SD card though :( so no pics or videos today. but y'all can accept all my friend requests on FB and I think there are pics of me on their profiles!

- Yesterday was Valentine´s Day here. Nothing in my world changed because #foreversingle and also Valentine´s Day for me has already passed! Hahaha but Saturday we had dinner at Bishop´s house with all the couples in the ward so that was fun and interesting lolol

Andddd that´s about it! Yesterday were transfers but we didn't receive a call.... but neither did anyone else, I think. So I think President didn't finish or he´s super busy (probably the latter) so as far as we know, I'm staying!!!! I really hope that I do, though. I don´t want to leave this area :) I love it so much!

Love you all so much. I love this gospel, and I´m humbled every day for the chance I have to be a missionary here in Brasil. For the opportunity I have to meet so many new people who each have a story. I love to hear about the lives of everyone who live here. I love my Savior and I´m grateful for Him. He gave His life for me, for all of us so that we can repent to become more like Him every day. I´m grateful for my family who support me and love me. And a quick shout out to the Shoal Creek Ward who have supported me throughout my whole mission! Thank you for the packages, the letters, and for the prayers. I´m so sad I´m no longer a part of the beloved Shoal Creek Ward but I will visit y'all when I return because you all deserve big hugs and a big thank you from me :) 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - still in shock

Soooooooooooooooo this week was fun! It was really great! This week, Cezario was baptized!!!!!! He´s a member´s dad! We had stopped by the member´s house one day this week, and afterwards we talked with his dad who lives in the house under his and he was super sweet and let us teach him and he agreed with everything we taught! He was truly prepared by the Lord and I know he´ll stay strong and grow in the gospel because his son and his daughter-in-law are strong, active members. He has so much support already!

This week while walking on an empty dirt/rock road we found a large stick thing and so we grabbed a rock and Sister Costa tried to play baseball haha she swung and missed and I said "No, no let me show you how, this is my sport (as in, Americans. Obvi I never even played baseball)" anyways, so I throw the rock up, swing, and MISS! lololol after 4 tries I finally hit it and we shouted and a dog started barking lolol so we dropped the stick/bat and ran laughing lolol some American I am lolol

This week I went to renew my visa - I can now stay in Brazil until next year ;) haha and while I was there in the mission office waiting for the other missionaries to arrive I heard some news.... I was talking to an elder who will leaving the same transfer as me... and he told me some news....
Who wants to see me a little bit sooner?
Yup..... I'll be leaving Brazil September 6th.....arriving in the USA September 7th. Now, it´s not official! But he said that President Fusco told him that date. I don´t know, but if it´s true.... I'll be seeing y'all a little bit sooner.

We have transfers next week and I really really REALLY want to stay here. I love this ward soo freaking much I don´t want to leave them. I really want to die here (mission wise). We´ll see what next weeks brings. But I'm praying to stay here.
It´s becoming a little winter-ish. We had a little bit more rain here this week. It rained super hard this morning actually. It´s nice for a little bit, but after it´s horrible because when the sun comes out it's hotter and stronger than ever. So that´s no fun!

But I'm doing great. Tomorrow we have a conference with the other mission too! Brazil Fortaleza Mission because.....
ELDER CHRISTENSEN WILL BE HERE!!!! We´re all super excited!!!!!! It should be really great and spiritually uplifting. I´ll let yáll know how it goes next week.

This week I also received Taylor´s package, a letter from Grandma, and from the Wilkins!!! I wrote you all letters today in thanks that I will get send this week but I'll thank yáll here, too! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I love you all and am so grateful for your love and support :)
LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!!
- Sister Parks

Pictures: baptism and a baby parrot! two months old!!

Maracanau, Brazil - the scorpion

Well, this week wasn´t too eventful but there were a few good moments!

- Yesterday one of our investigators turned into..............a scorpion!! For those of you all who don´t know mission slang, a scorpion is a guy (for sisters) that we teach who starts to like one of us. For elders, they´re called snakes. Sooooo we met this guy on Thursday, and he was really great and we taught him and he said we could come back and when we passed by on Sunday, as we walked up to him he said, "I didn´t receive an answer yet because of her" referring to me. Which totally took me off guard so I was like, huh? So we talked a little bit with him and he went back to the prayer. We always leave invitations for people to pray about our message, if it´s true. So he said, and this time it was very straight to the point, "every time I tried to pray her face came into my mind. I never forgot your face" soooooooooooooooooooo at this point I was like uhhhhhhhhhh what the heck do I say lolol so my companion tried to compensate and said that it was an answer because I'm here representing Jesus Christ and the church and all lol which is true of course! But it was just really funny. She then asked him if next Sunday he´ll go to church and he said, "it all depends on her" LOLOL so I said "well, I'm here to invite you to church." and only that. Lololol so we´ll see how teaching him goes now....... 

- We had another game night this week. I cut up the box that Mom had send to make little boxes with holes on the top to play that game where you put balls in the box and wrap it around the waist of a person and they have to dance around to get all the balls out lolol so that was very entertaining! We had a few other games which was fun. This week I think we´ll give the teams a break and just put on Just Dance for everyone to relax until the big finale....in 2 weeks we´re going to have a TALENT SHOW!!!!!! I´m super excited! The members are already getting ready with decorations and preparing their talents! I´m excited! I´m not sure if I´ll do anything or not...we´ll see! 

- This week we had lunch in our house one day and we made a noodle and meat dish haha which turned out....pretty good....lolol but the dessert was great because I made my cake!! It was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks Mom :)

- We had lunch with Tcharlly this week :) She´s the one who took us to the Tex-Mex restaurant. This week though lunch was in her house. After we were leaving she turned on her Netflix to start watching something and she said that she loves cops show and recommended I see "The Killing" so I told her she HAD to watch "The Killing"! Hahaha getting everyone hooked on movies and series here lol

WELL that´s about it for this week!

Love you all and I´m actually dying to see you all BUT pictures are helping me stay happy :) Thanks for the emails this week! 

LOVE AND KISSES!!

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - May 23, 2016

Hello folks! It´s been one tiring week; I´m tired just writing this. I noted a few things that happened this week for y'all though.

Last Monday after I emailed y'all: I wrote a little more about the past week on paper to take a picture and send to y'all today but.... I forgot. So next week you´ll get a picture with more about last week. But one thing that I just have to tell you all: I'M OFFICIALLY A BRAZILIAN!!! Yup, all the Americans and Hispanics got a Brazilian social security number!! CPF is the name here for SSN. So, I can officially live in Brazil WOOH! But calmmmm family, I won´t ;) But yeah, I thought that was pretty cool.

We also went to the mission office and I picked up my package!!! I opened it and my companion documented every second! Wow I loved everything - THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! I´m waiting for the perfect moment to make the cake but maybe I´ll just make it one random day this week, light my candles and make a late birthday wish :) I've distributed some of the candy y'all send so I´m once again the most wanted person here in the ward currently hahaha even the bishop´s wife said she wants one of the happy birthday banners. 

This week!

Tuesday Gabriel was baptized!!! He´s this adorable 10-year-old who is literally so small he looks like he´s 7. But he's been going to church for weeks now and we had marked his baptism sooo many times but always had problems like the church didn't have water or our baptismal font was being rebuilt but this Tuesday it all worked out!!! He was baptized and was soo excited about it :) 

Wednesday we had our game night and it was great because we had a great turnout! A few weeks ago we started a game that would last for the whole transfer. There are two teams and every week we have games and races to gain more points and throughout the week they can go out on visits with us to gain more points and do other missionary work stuff to gain points and it was so cool because the first week barely had anyone and this past Wednesday it was packed!!! 

Friday one of our moms here invited us over and we made tapioca which I looooove. It´s different here though.... I honestly don't remember what tapioca is in the United States though haha but here it´s great! We tried to make tapioca today though and....failed. Hahaha I took lots of videos which I'll try to send on dropbox.

Saturday we had Helping Hands!!! It was soo fun because it was with the whole stake and we all went to this other area nearby and split up into groups and passed out flyers about Dengue and how to prevent the growth of dengue in the house. It was super fun because we were with a group of youth in our ward and they´re all crazy hahaha. 

Today in a little bit we´re going to head over to the church to play volleyball with the youth! I´ll bring the football too and teach them how to throw it hahaha we´ll see how that goes. We may even play Uno too. 

Well, that´s about it! Thanks for all your love and prayers. I´m truly grateful for everyone´s support. I`m grateful for the time I have to be here and serve the wonderful people in Brazil. I love them with all my heart!!

Love and miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Sister Parks